Retribution
I have fond memories of watching the first Gladiator film. I first saw it with some of my best friends in college and I watched it with my closest brothers in Christ in the first Bible Study I joined as an adult. These are both core memories for me with such a monumental film. A revenge tale with incredible action scenes and an imposing protagonist to view the world of Rome through. Never once in my watching it over the past 24 years since it came out did I feel it needed a sequel. Gladiator II proves those thoughts absolutely correct. This is an unnecessary continuation of the original film that does little to justify its own existence. All though the film boasts incredible and exciting and cinematic gladiatorial battles and some intriguing character ideas, its overreliance on familiar plot threads through a more monotonous protagonist make this a classic case of sequelitis.
Years after witnessing the death of Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius must enter the Colosseum after the powerful emperors of Rome conquer his home. With rage in his heart and the future of the empire at stake, he looks to the past to find the strength and honor needed to return the glory of Rome to its people.
Ridley Scott is a visionary director well into his 80s, and that is on full display here in Gladiator II. From the production design, to the action scenes, to the scale of combat, and the vibrancy of Rome this is definitely a movie that has time and effort put into it. The action scenes feel engaging and tense, opting for real hand to hand combat instead of stitching together with CGI. The setting of the colosseum transports you back to the age of the Roman empire with large scale battles and the moments of the imperium on the way. A film should engage you in its world, and this most certainly dose through its set design and action set pieces. Outside of that, very little has full effect in this film.
While I am a proponent of not judging a sequel based on the original film and trying to evaluate it on its merits, when this sequel is intentionally borrowing heavily from its predecessor comparisons are inevitable. Paul Mescal’s Lucius is a fine protagonist but lacks the gravitas and presence that made Russell Crowe’s Oscar winning performance so noteworthy. We are constantly told things about his character but never actually shown his deeper and more emotional side. For one, we are constantly told that he is a gladiator of “rage” but that rage is never truly present on screen nor does it ever amount to anything special. The more emotional scenes such as reuniting with people from his past and pertinent character deaths lack any real impact because the relationship between them is all told to us, never shown. Its weak characterization that makes it hard to be invested in Lucius as our lead protagonist.
The story is copying the first film’s plot and that is something that the writing team does not appear to be ashamed of. A man is thrown down from his leadership, thrust into slavery, forced to fight his way through gladiatorial battles, and lead the people of Rome to a better future. Nothing here is surprising making the stakes feel shallow and predictable. Character motivations also feel unearned as they are primarily relegated to subplots. I am all for a legacy sequel, but the best ones honor their original film while also presenting new ideas. There are sequences in this film which are shot for shot retreads of the original intended to be fun callbacks but come across as desperate nostalgia bait for the audience. It has very little new to offer.
Granted, the original film’s plot is a good one. A old-fashioned rags-to-riches revenge story is one that gets audiences fired up and feel cathartic when the action lets out. The action sequences as I mentioned before are highly entertaining. There is a ferocity and intensity behind them given the R rating that makes them brutal and fun to watch. The scale of combat is also to be praised, with one sequence in particular brining in naval combat to the arena being a particular highlight. However, the plot is then primarily getting us from action scene to action scene without doing anything interesting or novel with its own story.
I will save for one character in Denzel Washington who delivers a refreshingly energetic performance that makes one wonder whether we should have seen the film through his eyes. A man who recruits gladiators and inspires them with promises could have been an interesting dynamic, and the double-sided and duplicitous nature of his character provides more intrigue then anything else this story offers. It would have been far more interesting to see a story focused more on the political underbelly of Rome and the overthrowing of power than a mindless retread of familiar plot threads.
Its not that the film is a horrible movie, its just a very fine movie because it doesn’t do anything new and we have seen it done better in its original. When you base your entire film on honoring the first one and don’t try to forge a new identity, it simply comes up as pointless. This film proves why Gladiator never needed a sequel in the first place. Its reliably entertaining, but not a worthy successor to its legacy. I don’t recommend checking this one out in theaters anytime soon. Save your money and time for another day.
(C -) Repetitive
Raj Reviews 